BLAKE-——-AMERICAN SPECIES OF HOMALIUM. 225 
Homalium spicatum Lam. Encyel. 1: 32. 1783. 
Homalium racoubea Swartz, Prodr. Veg. Ind. Occ. 86. 1788. 
Older branches glabrous or sparsely puberulous, the bark grayish brown; young 
branchlets incurved-puberulous and sparsely pilose; leaf blades 6.5 to 13.3 em. long, 
3.5 to 6.8 cm. wide, obovate-oval to elliptic or oval, obtuse or short-pointed but the 
apex blunt, cuneate to rounded at base, repand-crenate with 11 to 20 blunt teeth, 
pergamentaceous in age, above very sparsely puberulous, more densely so along the 
midrib, glabrate in age, beneath along costa and sometimes along the 5 to 11 pairs of 
lateral veins sparsely incurved-puberulous or pubescent, in age nearly or quite 
glabrous, sometimes barbellate in the axils of the veins; petioles 3 to 7 mm. long, 
incurved-puberulous or incurved-pubescent; peduncles axillary and terminal, in- 
curved-puberulous, 2.8 to 5 em. long; inflorescences spikelike and simple, or some- 
times conic-paniculate, loosely flowered, 8 to 17 em. long; lower branches of the 
inflorescence (peduncles of the second order) 0.5 to 4 cm. long; ultimate pedicels 1 mm. 
long or less; fruiting calyx tube depressed-turbinate, 5 or 6-sulcate, not contracted 
into a pediform base, griseous-puberulous; calyx segments triangular-lanceolate or 
narrowly lanceolate, acutish or acute, 1.2 to 2.3 mm. long, 0.6 to 1.2 mm. wide; 
corolla 9 to 12 mm. wide; petals deltoid-ovate, griseous-puberulous, in flower 2.5 mm. . 
long, 2 to 2.5 mm. wide, in fruit 3 to 3.4 mm. long, 2.5 mm, wide; glands transversely 
oval-oblong or lunate-oblong, tomentose-puberulous; stamens in fascicles of 2 to 4, 
exceeding the petals, their filaments glabrous; styles 3 or ‘‘4’’, united at the base into 
a short column, glabrous or pilose at base; ovary depressed-conic, griseous-villous. 
Tyre Ltocauiry: ‘‘Sur habitation de Madame Gourde, dans le Comté de Géne,”’ 
French Guiana. 
Innustrations: Aubl. Pl. Guian. pl. 236; Lam. Tabl. Encyel. pl. 483, f. 1; Mart. 
Fl. Bras. 13): pl. 101, f. I. 
SPECIMENS EXAMINED: 
British Guiana: Schomburgk I. 225 (N). Upper Demerara River, September, 
1887, Jenman 4022 (N). 
SuRInAM: Without definite locality, ex herb. Miquel (G). 
Brazit: Burchell 9685 (G, N). 
This species is reported by Bentham and Eichler from the three Guianas and from 
the provinces Amazonas, Paré, and Goyaz, Lrazil. According to H. L. Gerth van 
Wijk’s Dictionary of Plant Names, the species bears the following vernacular names: 
“bita hoedoe” (Surinam), ‘‘acomas a épis,’’ “‘acomas en épis,”’ ‘‘mavavé,”’ “‘mavévé,”’ 
“‘racoube de la Guiane,’’ and ‘‘ahriger akomasbaum.”’ Jenman’s label bears the 
name ‘‘conageddyballi.”’ 
Aublet says of his Racoubea guianensis: ‘‘On emploie la racine de cet arbrisseau 
en tisanne pour guérir les gonorrhées. * * * Les Créoles appellent cet arbrisseau 
mavévé, nom qu’ils donnent 4 plusieurs plantes dont ils font usage pour la cure de 
différentes maladies.”’ 
8. Homalium nicaraguense Blake, sp. nov. 
Tree of medium size; branchlets fuscous gray, lenticellate, finely incurved- 
puberulous and sparsely pilose; leaf blades 14.5 to 17.5 cm. long, 5.3 to 6.5 cm. 
wide, elliptic-oblong or obovate-oblong, short-acuminate, at base rounded or 
cuneate-rounded, crenate-serrate, thin-pergamentaceous, feather-veined (lateral 
veins 7 to 9 pairs) and somewhat prominulous-reticulate, above sparsely incurved- 
puberulous and sometimes very sparsely pilose on costa, otherwise glabrous, be- 
neath equally green, spreading-pilose on costa, especially below the middle, other- 
wise glabrous, not barbellate in the axils of the veins; petioles incurved-puberulous 
and sparsely pilose, 4 to 6 mm. long; inflorescences axillary, with one or two 
branches at base, these 1 to 4 cm. long, otherwise simply spicate-racemose; peduncle 
(1 to 4.5 cm. long) and axis (16 to 22 cm. long) griseous-puberulous with curved 
hairs; pedicels 0.5 mm. long or less; fruiting calyx tube turbinate, obtuse, not con- 
tracted into a pediform base, griseous-puberulous, sulcate; calyx segments 6, lanceo- 
